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Is promoting health literacy of patients a worthwhile endeavour for nurses? Reflections from observations of clinical encounters between nurses and patients with epilepsy in a chronic illness clinic in Cape Town
In South Africa, most patients with chronic illnesses who are also of low socio-economic background are seen by clinical nurse
practitioners with the support from doctors in the public health sector. The majority of these patients have low levels of health
literacy ��? and this may affect their understanding of their illness as well as their treatment. Therefore, nurses have a crucial role to
play in promoting health literacy of patients under their care to enable them to self-manage their conditions and for improved health
outcomes. Low health literacy pose some challenges for the health care system and a burden for nurses because of unnecessary
follow up visits especially in the public health sector which is poorly resourced. This paper shares insights from observations of
clinical encounters between Xhosa speaking patients with epilepsy and health care practitioners which were conducted in a chronic
illness clinic that provides care for patients with epilepsy in Cape Town, South Africa. It highlights the importance of taking into
consideration cultural factors that may affect health literacy of patients. It argues that there are opportunities to promote health
literacy in any clinical encounter. The paper asserts that a collaborative multi-disciplinary team work can enable achievement of this
objective. However, this can be done if nurses and other health care practitioners have skills in health literacy.